Microbes Fight Back: Antibiotic Resistance - Softcover

Bowater, Laura

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1782621679 ISBN 13: 9781782621676

Verlag: Royal Society of Chemistry, 2016

Inhaltsangabe

Although scientists continue to play a crucial role in the continuing battle against antibiotic resistance, a return to a pre-antibiotic era is a distinct possibility. This book draws much-needed attention to current levels of antibiotic resistance and the lack of new antibiotic drugs coming to market. The fascinating history of antibiotic discovery, how antibiotics are made now, and how bacteria manage to mutate and develop resistance to our medicines are explained in terms non-specialists can follow. The book also describes the alarming ease with which antibiotic resistance spreads within bacterial communities. How have human activities contributed to antibiotic resistance? What will a future where resistance continues to increase look like and how will we cope with the 'superbugs'? Laura Bowater engages readers with these questions, raising awareness of an important global challenge for humanity.

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Antibiotics are familiar drugs to us all, so familiar that we may take them for granted. They allow us to survive life-threatening infections, and allow us to protect the animals we farm for food. Many antibiotics have now become ineffective against common diseases, and there are few alternative treatments to replace them. In this topical popular science book, Laura Bowater, Professor of Microbiology Education and Engagement at Norwich Medical School, considers the past, present and uncertain future of antibiotics.

This book begins by looking back at how infectious diseases, such as smallpox and the plague, were able to wreak havoc on populations before the discovery of the first antibiotics. These then revolutionised the medical world. In an engaging and accessible style, Professor Bowater takes the reader through how antibiotics are made, how bacteria are able to mutate and develop resistance and she explains why there is now a lack of new antibiotic drugs coming to market.

What will a future of continued antibiotic resistance look like? How can human activities prevent the rise of ‘superbugs'? Professor Bowater highlights the need for universal cooperation in order to tackle this global health challenge, which, if not addressed, could transport us back to the medical dark ages.

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The Microbes Fight Back

Antibiotic Resistance

By Laura Bowater

The Royal Society of Chemistry

Copyright © 2017 Laura Bowater
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-78262-167-6

Contents

Chapter 1 Antibiotic Resistance: The State of Play Today, 
Chapter 2 The Microbiologists, 
Chapter 3 Public Health and Infectious Diseases, 
Chapter 4 Microbial Makeup and Antibiotic Targets, 
Chapter 5 What is Antibiotic Resistance?, 
Chapter 6 Spreading Antibiotic Resistance?, 
Chapter 7 Moving Forward While Looking Back, 
Glossary, 
Subject Index, 

CHAPTER 1

Antibiotic Resistance: The State of Play Today

1.1 PRICEY PLAGUES

In 1842, Edwin Chadwick published an influential report: the Report from the Poor Law Commissioners on an Inquiry into the Sanitary Conditions of the Laboring Population of Great Britain. It described the terrible social, environmental and living conditions experienced by the majority of people in England and Wales. The impact of this report was far-reaching and profound. It led to the Public Health Act (An Act for Promoting Public Health) being passed through the Houses of Parliament at Westminster in order to improve public health and to ensure

"more effective provision ... for improving sanitary conditions of towns and populace places in England and Wales."

What Chadwick had recognised was that rapid industrialisation was transforming British society. Urbanisation was taking place on an unimaginable scale. Row upon row of cheap, poorly built housing sprang up as homes for the poorly paid factory workers who were needed to produce the factory goods. In sharp contrast, these goods were sold to generate the wealth and money that built the impressive town halls and municipal building that represented prosperity and define our city landscapes to this day. The lack of sanitation and abject poverty experienced by most factory workers inevitably resulted in the "4 Ds": Dirt, Disease, Deprivation and Death. This pervasive squalor and the cramped living conditions, combined with poverty, was a perfect breeding ground for infections (Figure 1.1).

The Chadwick Act, as it became known, was a significant milestone for public health. The health of the British nation needed to improve. The problems caused by the ravages of disease and unmanaged sewage was not restricted to the poor and destitute slum dwellers. These problems affected the entire society and even the wealthy were not immune. The Chadwick Act set out the need for "The State" to play an active role in improving public health. The treasury provided funding to organise and run national and local boards of health that were accountable to the Treasury. Superintending inspectors and officers were appointed and individual town halls could request inspections if the death rates in their local areas were too high. Ultimately, the Act led to investment in the Victorian public sewerage systems and, at last, the public health of the nation started to improve.

It is easy to mistake Chadwick's motives as straightforward philanthropy. In fact, his motivation was money. The argument he used to negotiate his Act through parliament was an economic one. Chadwick reasoned that improving the health of the poor would result in fewer men (and women), who were used to populate the industrial workforces, dying from infectious diseases. This would result in a reduction in the numbers of families and widows left destitute after the main, male breadwinner had died. In turn, this would reduce the number of penniless, desperate relatives, widows and families seeking poor-relief and ending up in Victorian workhouses because they had no alternative. Money would be saved in the long term. Improving public health was cost effective.

In many regards, the Chadwick Act was a response to the crisis caused by a plethora of common endemic and epidemic diseases, such as syphilis, gonorrhoea, whooping cough, scarlet fever, smallpox, dysentery, diphtheria, tuberculosis, measles, the plague, typhoid, typhus and influenza, that regularly ravaged industrial Britain. These diseases were not confined to the British Isles or even to industrialised nations. Infectious diseases were, and are, a global concern. They affect humanity across every society and habitable continent. Even today, infectious diseases recognise no boundaries nor borders. Human, as well as animal migration facilitate their deadly spread across the globe and throughout history they have been accompanied by a devastating loss of human life.

Looking back at statistics gathered more than 100 years ago at the beginning of the twentieth century, infectious diseases caused by microbial pathogens were responsible for the majority of human disease and death (Table 1.1).

However, the next 100 years were a pivotal time span in a battle to rid the world of infections. The twentieth century is considered a golden age for public health. The scientific adventurers, visionaries and pathfinders, such as Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek, Louis Pasteur, Robert Koch and Joseph Lister, ensured that by the turn of the twentieth century there was a much better understanding about the microbial causes of infection and disease. Knowledge about the relatively "simple" microbes, bacteria, fungi and virus, as well as the more complex parasites, such as trypanosomes and plasmodia that are responsible for malaria and sleeping sickness, had expanded. Humanity had entered an era where the importance of infection control was understood, better sanitation measures were adopted and vaccination programmes were implemented.

1.2 THE ADVENT OF THE ANTIBIOTIC ERA

When it comes to public health, another game changer arrived in 1928. Fleming's discovery of penicillin heralded the arrival of the golden age of antibiotic discovery. These new, miracle drugs that could combat infections and target disease-causing bacteria and microbes led to the utopian view that death from infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis, pneumonia and diphtheria, would be relegated to history — an uncomfortable memory associated with an annihilative past. Scientific progress and discovery had saved the day. Scientists were inspired to hunt for new microbes, brew broths of bacteria and purify antibiotic products that could inhibit the growth of human pathogens. Any compound that showed potential as an antibiotic drug was quickly tested on animals and shortly afterwards it made its way into clinical use. The impact of infectious disease was altered significantly. A short course of an antibiotic is an effective treatment. Diseases caused by bacterial infections that had been firmly placed in the top ten were relegated down the killer lists. In developed countries, a quick glance at the mortality statistics suggests that the battle is being won; chronic diseases, which include heart disease and cancer, have overtaken infectious diseases as the most likely cause of death, and access to rapid improvements in healthcare provision has resulted in concomitant dramatic increases in life expectancy.

1.3 NEW DISEASES

Sadly, the global optimism that infections were to be relegated to the past didn't last. Even now, at the beginning of the 21st century, infectious diseases are still a significant threat in developing countries (Figure 1.2).

Diseases believed to be vanquished to the past, such as tuberculosis and gonorrhoea, are becoming more and more difficult to treat and cure. In addition, the last decades have shown that society doesn't just...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Royal Society of Chemistry
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2016
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1782621679
• ISBN 13: 9781782621676
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 289
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: gpsr@libri.de; gpsr@libri.de; ; Europaallee 1; Bad Hersfeld; 36244; Deutschland